Generally, moisture or perspiration forms in the foot area of a person especially when a sock or shoe is worn on the foot. The perspiration may become excessive when the person exercises, such as when hiking or running. This excess perspiration accumulating around the foot and in the footwear is often uncomfortable and irritating.
Previously, shoes have been designed and constructed to keep moisture out of the shoe with little or no consideration for perspiration formed within the shoe. An example of such shoes may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,897,610 to Campagna entitled Heat Insulated, Gusset-Type, Waterproof Footwear. Recently, shoes have been designed which attempt to keep the innermost layer of the shoe nearest the foot dry by-providing a high moisture permeable and low moisture holding material for this layer of the entire shoe and a layer overlying the innermost layer for further insulating the foot from moisture. An example of such a shoe may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,811 to Okada entitled Footwear. Also, other shoes have been designed which recognize the need to ventilate the shoe by providing perforations in the tongue area of the shoe. An example of this type of shoe is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,429 to Schmid entitled Tongue for a Shoe, Particularly a Sport Shoe, and a Shoe Including a Tongue.
Unfortunately, these prior shoes failed to recognize that about two thirds of the perspiration from the wearer accumulates in the ball and toe areas of the foot. Simply insulating the foot from outside moisture, absorbing moisture into the footwear, and providing ventilation to the shoe through a series of perforations did not solve the problem of accumulation of excess perspiration around the ball and toe areas of the foot.
The inventor of the present invention, on the other hand, recognized that the prior footwear failed to adequately remove perspiration from the ball and toe areas and, therefore, developed and patented a unique sock, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,007 entitled Moisture Management Sock, to solve this problem. While this unique moisture management sock improved the dissipation of moisture from conventional shoes, further improvement is still highly desirable.